Why not have UOGamecodes sell gold, castles, etc?

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Seriously. Instead of killing yourself to get gold just buy it legally from EA. Instead of killing yourself to get a billion gold or whatever for a castle just pay the UOGamecodes like $500 and volia!, you have your castle.

It seems simpler considering the prices on everything anymore is so ridiculously inflated.

Sorry if I offend anyone.

Its just that my sister and I have a friend that wants a castle but no matter how much gold we scrape together its never enough. We scrape together 80 mil between the 4 of us and then they want 175 mil. By the time we get that together they'll want 1 billion. Its disheartening and rediculous.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I can't figure out how a tram castle goes for 125-175 mil on Legends and our shard is pretty much dead. I could see that much like on Pac, GL, or Cats. I heard tram castles go for a billion on Atl. Its like the brokers own UO, ya know?

I don't know if my friend would want a castle on another shard.

This has just gotten me way,way,way down. Its seems like everytime I try to do something nice for someone in game it totally blows up in my face. Makes me feel like what's the point of doing anything for anyone, and makes me feel like giving up on being nice and helping people.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

IMHO, Legends has become a total pit. Those of us that try so hard to do nice stuff for others get crapped on; like a statue with 1001 pigeons roosting on it.

Take Fluffy Bunny he totally busts his butt to host player run events and what does he get? People call him a scammer, and all sorts of crap. No wonder he needed a vacation.

Remember Tov and Darri? They had THE BEST auction house and they quit.
I ask Tov why and this is what he told me: "No one ever other than you and your sis ever invite Darri and I to go hunting or anything!" "No one ever goes, Hey Tov, Darri wanna do a peerless/Champ/etc. Its WHERES MY GOLD! WHERE'S MY ITEM!" "They got tired of being eveyone's one auction slave." So they left.

How about poor ole Woody of Mooglow, people would bawl him out if the vendors got empty or didn't have the item they wanted. He said it got to where he felt like people saw him as a vendor slave and he left.

Legends uses the good people until they use them all up then they move on to the next fool silly enough to want to try to better Legends. It seems hopeless to me because people will never appreciate the kindness that other do for them.

Only reason I'm trying so hard to help my friend is someone was kind to me and my sister after watching us fail miserably at trying to place and buy a castle for 3 years. I will not name them as I made a promise and I keep my promises. I wanted to do this to HONOR them. To pay it foward. If my castle didn't mean so much because it was a gift I'd give it to my friend.

Seriously. Instead of killing yourself to get gold just buy it legally from EA. Instead of killing yourself to get a billion gold or whatever for a castle just pay the codestore like $500 and volia!, you have your castle.

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- Is it wrong for me to assume that you considered the ramifications of such a request before you made it?

- I hope it does not become any more 'pay for stature' than the gray market already allows; yet for several years I have hoped that UO would garner a surcharge, by way of providing an auction website, on things such as this.

Additionally, seriously, if they were to provide those willing to pay for such as you mention, in the title of this thread, then this game would quickly be retired due to lack of profits... seriously.. and I'm confident most all can see exactly why that would be inevitably true.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Selling gold would completely ruin what little is left of a viable economy. It's still salvageable at this point, but it wouldn't be if they did that.

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How can you say it's salvagable? When a castle sells for 1 billion on Atlantic you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish. It's MHO that the brokers have owned UO for a long time.

I can remember living in destard ,before the greater dragons, mowing down dragons for hours only to not have enough gold to spit! I couldn't figure out how anyone afforded a doom artifact or anything. I kept on mowing down dragons and wonder how the hell anyone got ahead in UO. I'd sell items but I'm such a schmuck I'd sell too cheap.

Then I discovered THOSE sites...I couldn't believe it. You can just buy gold or whatever even housing. It was the most depressing moment in all the time I've played UO.

I realized as long as you are "Jill B. Good" you are so screwed. For the recorded I have NEVER cheated, never used scripts, but as for buying gold....Don't ask, and I won't tell. Now I do good to pay for my accounts each month and my sis's. I'm back to grinding monsters again. Sis and I have found running t-maps and raiding pirate/merchant ships quite profitable.

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Seriously. Instead of killing yourself to get gold just buy it legally from EA. Instead of killing yourself to get a billion gold or whatever for a castle just pay the codestore like $500 and volia!, you have your castle.

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- Is it wrong for me to assume that you considered the ramifications of such a request before you made it?

- I hope it does not become any more 'pay for stature' than the gray market already allows; yet for several years I have hoped that UO would garner a surcharge, by way of providing an auction website, on things such as this.

Additionally, seriously, if they were to provide those willing to pay for such as you mention, in the title of this thread, then this game would quickly be retired due to lack of profits... seriously.. and I'm confident most all can see exactly why that would be inevitably true.

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But isn't it there already with the "gray market"? I mean if I were starting as noobie like I did in 2002. I'd take one look around , and say forget it.

Its depressing enough for us veteran players, but OMG can you imagine being a noobie and looking at the Luna vendor's prices? it would put anyone off.

From the sounds of things we're gonna have a "Luna II" that will probably endup in the hands of the brokers...cause guess whose got tons of gold to buy those lotto tickets. Meh, If I wanna play the Lottery I'll take my sorry butt to QT and buy a Powerball ticket.

If you posted this stuff about Legends back in December, I would have strongly disagreed with you to the point where I'd be starting an argument. After playing for several months, now I agree with what you say.

When I played back in 2007, Legends had a whole different feel and a great community. While I was more laid back, my sister Ambrossia wasn't and I remember her telling me of some awesome people like N'akasha Saran, Dari, Tov, and more that I can't remember who made Legends fun and who would do anything for you.
I just can't find that feeling anymore on Legends. Sure there are some great people still around, but it's just not the same. That's why I'm slowly moving my characters to Sonoma where I enjoy playing there so much more.

If you are seriously looking for a Castle, I am going to sell mine sometime this month for 50 mil which includes everything inside of it that I can't take over. It's in the old Dragon Spine township area in Trammel.

As for being able to buy gold, I can't agree with you there, but I feel your frustration.

Stratics Veteran

you can buy that castle for 175mill. That's not even an outrageous sum of gold for a house. On legends, a few folks are true experts of idocs across many shards. Gold from selling these very desirable houses keeps much of the shard's economy alive. What else happens, we also give folks constant runes to places they can get keeps, and nice locations for 18x18s.

If buying a castle is too expensive, just go and PLACE a keep. I will find you a spot for one for free.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

How can you say it's salvagable? When a castle sells for 1 billion on Atlantic you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish. It's MHO that the brokers have owned UO for a long time.

I can remember living in destard ,before the greater dragons, mowing down dragons for hours only to not have enough gold to spit! I couldn't figure out how anyone afforded a doom artifact or anything. I kept on mowing down dragons and wonder how the hell anyone got ahead in UO. I'd sell items but I'm such a schmuck I'd sell too cheap.

Then I discovered THOSE sites...I couldn't believe it. You can just buy gold or whatever even housing. It was the most depressing moment in all the time I've played UO.

I realized as long as you are "Jill B. Good" you are so screwed. For the recorded I have NEVER cheated, never used scripts, but as for buying gold....Don't ask, and I won't tell. Now I do good to pay for my accounts each month and my sis's. I'm back to grinding monsters again. Sis and I have found running t-maps and raiding pirate/merchant ships quite profitable.

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

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Yes, there are cheaters.
Yes, there are scripters.

But you don't need to do those to make 1B. You need to hunt the right items and sell sell sell.

Granted - it takes time but I've been in game 100 months and I've got over a billion worth of items. I keep around $200m in cash and have tons of 'stuff' that I could sell for a billion if i needed to. I don't run scripts, I don't dupe etc.

You aren't going to make $1b killing dragons. Right now with the event - get a couple friends and kill blackrocks. People selling suits for $10m. You can collect a suit with a few hours of hard work and 4 peeps. Split it for $2.5m each.

Dig up t-chests and sell scrolls of alacrity. Most get you 100k and you can dig up 2-3 of those an hour.

Do some bods and sell Powder of fort for 200k a bottle.

I mean, you can make a mil a day easy with only a few hours work and some days more than that if you are hunting/gathering/doing the things that bring the most value.

Mil a day is $365m a year if you play every day.

After being here for 8 years like myself i you DON'T have a billion of stuff or gold - I question what you did with your time.

Stratics Veteran

How can you say it's salvagable? When a castle sells for 1 billion on Atlantic you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish. It's MHO that the brokers have owned UO for a long time.

I can remember living in destard ,before the greater dragons, mowing down dragons for hours only to not have enough gold to spit! I couldn't figure out how anyone afforded a doom artifact or anything. I kept on mowing down dragons and wonder how the hell anyone got ahead in UO. I'd sell items but I'm such a schmuck I'd sell too cheap.

Then I discovered THOSE sites...I couldn't believe it. You can just buy gold or whatever even housing. It was the most depressing moment in all the time I've played UO.

I realized as long as you are "Jill B. Good" you are so screwed. For the recorded I have NEVER cheated, never used scripts, but as for buying gold....Don't ask, and I won't tell. Now I do good to pay for my accounts each month and my sis's. I'm back to grinding monsters again. Sis and I have found running t-maps and raiding pirate/merchant ships quite profitable.

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

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Killing monsters is nice for starting up. It's not long term profitable. You can use the gold from that to get a champ killer together and kill peerless or champs but even that is still mid level farming.

High end pvp brings in a lot of gold because you can basically do anything you want.

Stratics Veteran

Because then every development decision would revolve around how it would impact sales in the code store. Are they lowering the gold on monsters to help balance the economy or encourage cash sales? Are they implementing gold sinks because they realize they are necessary or to drain our bank accounts?

People whine and moan that UO has been put on 'Easy Mode' already, this would just prove it.

Many people see keeps, castles, and stupid amounts of wealth as goals to achieve. Selling them for cash on a website the Mythic doesn't even control would make everyone who got legitimately earned the wealth in UO by, ya know, playing the game rather upset.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

People whine and moan that UO has been put on 'Easy Mode' already, this would just prove it.

Many people see keeps, castles, and stupid amounts of wealth as goals to achieve. Selling them for cash on a website the Mythic doesn't even control would make everyone who got legitimately earned the wealth in UO by, ya know, playing the game rather upset.

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I'm sorry I was referring to UOGamecodes on the UOHerald page not a 3rd party site.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

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Sounds like you forgot something rather important - it's a game. You set yourself a perfectly decent and nice objective, but it wasn't realistic for the way you play, and then turned playing a game into a pretty comprehensive 'job' to try reach that unrealistic aim.

Work out what you have fun doing in the game, do that, and fit what you try do for others into a more accurate assessment of what you can realistically manage.

I'm sorry I was referring to UOGamecodes on the UOHerald page not a 3rd party site.

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UO Gamecodes IS third party... Hence all the issues with it.

Edit: Before someone wets themselves over that statement, uogamecodes.com isn't like the bad third party RMT search sites that absolutely nobody uses... *looks at all the innocent faces* Mmmhmm... Thought so.

Anyway, the site is someone they've contracted with to provide the shop. Why they couldn't use the EA store, like all the other EA games do, is beyond me. Oh, right, EA doesn't want to acknowledge that it owns UO unless they are getting an award.

Edit: Before someone wets themselves over that statement, uogamecodes.com isn't like the bad third party RMT search sites that absolutely nobody uses... *looks at all the innocent faces* Mmmhmm... Thought so.

Anyway, the site is someone they've contracted with to provide the shop. Why they couldn't use the EA store, like all the other EA games do, is beyond me. Oh, right, EA doesn't want to acknowledge that it owns UO unless they are getting an award.

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It shouldn't be beyond you - you answered the question yourself. It's cheaper for EA to contract out for it.

There are certain things that EA likes to sell directly, and there are certain things like they like to contract out for. UO Game Codes is a lot more than a simple game that is sold through the EA store. As Supreem said in the video, it's a lot of codes that are generated up front and then have to be tracked. It would require changes/additions to the EA store, and EA found it cheaper to have a third party doing it, especially given the low volume. It's just like BioWare doesn't want to deal with printing and selling t-shirts so they have somebody else do it.

If the volume was a lot higher on UO items, they would have brought it in house. It's the same reason why EA doesn't sell physical copies of UO - there is not enough volume to make it worth their effort. EA goes where the money is, and the money is simply not there for those types of things.

Stratics Veteran

There is an aspect to this story that makes the suggestion clearer. Jirel only asks for this because she can't PLACE a castle on legends and she's unwilling to sell one of the luna homes she and her sister own to buy a castle.

There is an aspect to this story that makes the suggestion clearer. Jirel only asks for this because she can't PLACE a castle on legends and she's unwilling to sell one of the luna homes she and her sister own to buy a castle.

It's a have your cake and eat it too mentality.

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I don't follow your thinking there. It's a "get" mentality, just like we all play these games for.

When it comes to the gold at least, it's a very bad idea. The current economy is bad enough, this would only deeper the problem. I don't know the legality of the gold selling business run by other players, but at least that gold is wealth which is already in game. Thus when you buy from them, no new gold is being created. On the other hand, if EA was to begin selling gold, than it would be created upon purchase which would cause an even greater influx of uneeded gold.

How can you say it's salvagable? When a castle sells for 1 billion on Atlantic you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish. It's MHO that the brokers have owned UO for a long time.

I can remember living in destard ,before the greater dragons, mowing down dragons for hours only to not have enough gold to spit! I couldn't figure out how anyone afforded a doom artifact or anything. I kept on mowing down dragons and wonder how the hell anyone got ahead in UO. I'd sell items but I'm such a schmuck I'd sell too cheap.

Then I discovered THOSE sites...I couldn't believe it. You can just buy gold or whatever even housing. It was the most depressing moment in all the time I've played UO.

I realized as long as you are "Jill B. Good" you are so screwed. For the recorded I have NEVER cheated, never used scripts, but as for buying gold....Don't ask, and I won't tell. Now I do good to pay for my accounts each month and my sis's. I'm back to grinding monsters again. Sis and I have found running t-maps and raiding pirate/merchant ships quite profitable.

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

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Ofcourse they did. Buy and sell, Buy and sell. Have 10mil in pocket then Buy a house for 10mil sell for 15mil buy 2 houses for 7mil sell each for 10mil now you have 21mil buy a 21mil house sell for 31mil. Continue this till you buy castles and resell them. Do this with items, rares and resources as well. If someone played trammel life and pre-trammel life of merchant and commerce for over 10 years and they don't have 1bill gold then they are a epic fail and being a merchant.

These days are not as well of because of the dramatic decrease of players and the way they made the system everything for everybody thing even if they don't put any time but still merchatable.
One does not generate gold from monsters thats for low end begginers. One receive gold from other players with more gold than them. Redistrubute of wealth. Generation of gold from nothing came from dupes and the earlie days when someone was rich if they had 50k in there pocket. But for a long time now the way to generate wealth is to trade other players for it by offering them something they want in exchange for gold.

Newbies have it way too easy and so little of them there are though newbies that being newbies for years are plentiful.. They shouldn't be woorying about end game let alone bother buying items from Luna when they just started. They should be hunting even though it's useless in the end run or joining up with a pvp guild. They should set goals for themselves and concentrate on that. Good lord these days newbies can reach haven to end game whithin a month even though this is a monthly pay game. That should be UO really big problem right now.

you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish.

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I'm not rich myself.. but this statement is false. You can make a lot of money in IDOCs and/or Rares. Like Ominus said PVP allows you to defend an IDOC in fel (or set prices on +25 stat scrolls) and if you have been around a lonnnng time and understand the rares and know the market you can make a lot too. I am good at neither, so I do mid grade stuff.

If you are seriously looking for a Castle, I am going to sell mine sometime this month for 50 mil which includes everything inside of it that I can't take over. It's in the old Dragon Spine township area in Trammel.

I'm not rich myself.. but this statement is false. You can make a lot of money in IDOCs and/or Rares. Like Ominus said PVP allows you to defend an IDOC in fel (or set prices on +25 stat scrolls) and if you have been around a lonnnng time and understand the rares and know the market you can make a lot too. I am good at neither, so I do mid grade stuff.

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Truth. I became very UO rich when housing was actually worth something and rares are always in demand.

A few months ago I made over 40 million just for a few off handed items at an auction. And those weren't even really in demand rares or items. I also sold Tinker's Legs when they first came around for 75-ish million. And I say that as someone who is not even well versed in ALL the rares currently out there.

In the early 2000's there was Ebay. Back then gold went for $50 a million (Literally), or 100k for $20. Along with gold there were items and such also for sale.

Then there was tradespot.

Now there are various other sites that provide the same services.

So even when you thought UO was led by the golden boy RC (Who of which I have immense respect for), there was still this 'gray market'.

I can't even imagine a UO without this outside source for wealth and items. IMO, it would be devastating to get rid of them and make it part of UOgamecodes.

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Well, honestly, there is no sense of accomplishment and nothing to drive for if you can just buy it all.

My first home (7x7 marble workshop in the swamp, lol) was my dream. There was something very rewarding about being able to save up in game the 750k it cost me to buy.

I recall finding a plot for my first Trammel home, a 13x18 situated near some ruins. I recall just being THRILLED that I somehow was lucky enough to land a space... in TRAMMEL, no less! I recall busting my rear to grab everything I needed before someone else might be along to grab it.

I recall the first time I pieced together a fully 70s resist, 100 lrc suit with my tailor. Heck, I recall getting my tailor to legendary.

I recall the nearly three years it took to GM provocation.

Have I bought things before out of game? Yes. But nothing beats that sense of wonder when you can do something on your own, or even with your guildies.

I would hate to see that ruined by having every item, plot, house, etc at your disposal with it being available on the game codes site, tbh.

Stratics Veteran

I agree with most of what you said, but it's still all perspective. Back then in the early 2000's I would not have bought gold (Mostly because I didn't have a Card of any type). That was back when I really gave a hoot about accomplishing skills, and net worth, and all that yada yada.

Today's game is much different, and I've experienced enough of the game working from scratch that, that feeling of accomplishment is long gone. Nowadays I buy gold by the hundreds of millions to accomplish the task of gathering all items that I could only dream of owning back in the long ago day. I neither have time nor the care to actually hunt for gold. As a matter of fact, I could safely say that its been nearly 5 years since I looted the gold off of any corpse, and that's champs included.

If UOGamecodes started selling gold, and resorted to actions that Activision/Blizzard did to WoW suppliers, then they would sell gold far more expensive than the .50/per we have today.

In all honesty however, I will say that this gray market has contributed for the most part the degradation of the economy and encouraged mass inflation.

How can you say it's salvagable? When a castle sells for 1 billion on Atlantic you're going to tell me that someone earned 1 billion playing the game honestly...no scripts, no cheats, no buying gold from brokers? I say to you sir, rubbish, pure and simple rubbish. It's MHO that the brokers have owned UO for a long time.

I can remember living in destard ,before the greater dragons, mowing down dragons for hours only to not have enough gold to spit! I couldn't figure out how anyone afforded a doom artifact or anything. I kept on mowing down dragons and wonder how the hell anyone got ahead in UO. I'd sell items but I'm such a schmuck I'd sell too cheap.

Then I discovered THOSE sites...I couldn't believe it. You can just buy gold or whatever even housing. It was the most depressing moment in all the time I've played UO.

I realized as long as you are "Jill B. Good" you are so screwed. For the recorded I have NEVER cheated, never used scripts, but as for buying gold....Don't ask, and I won't tell. Now I do good to pay for my accounts each month and my sis's. I'm back to grinding monsters again. Sis and I have found running t-maps and raiding pirate/merchant ships quite profitable.

I've very down on UO right now and I don't see much to get happy about.

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Sounds like you could use a UO Vacation too!
Sometimes a break from the game will re-energize those urges to help out the community.
Perspective is reality. Don't lose perspective on what you want to do and how you act in game over frustrations of how others choose to act.
After a short break from UO, projects and ideas flow better and It's also nice to see those familiar friendly faces again.
Good Luck!

Stratics VeteranAlumni

Didn't read beyond the first post, but this is to the OP anyway so I may just be repeating what someone else already said.

The reason castles are so expensive is because of the limited amount of land where they can be placed and the out of control inflation because of all the gold in the game. You think it's bad now? If EA started selling gold the problem would instantly become 1,000 times worse. Instead of someone wanting 175mil for a castle, they'll want 175 billion.

I don't know what a solution to that problem is, but it's certainly not EA selling gold. If they started doing that gold would be completely worthless.

Stratics Veteran

In the early 2000's there was Ebay. Back then gold went for $50 a million (Literally), or 100k for $20. Along with gold there were items and such also for sale.

Then there was tradespot.

Now there are various other sites that provide the same services.

So even when you thought UO was led by the golden boy RC (Who of which I have immense respect for), there was still this 'gray market'.

I can't even imagine a UO without this outside source for wealth and items. IMO, it would be devastating to get rid of them and make it part of UOgamecodes.

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it was around before 2000, and strong too.

most people know I was a tradespot broker for a bit a long time ago. At one time I was getting well over $100 per mil (before I was on TS). But the biggest items I sold? Homes, they went for A LOT even one room homes, when tram hit the market took off yet again.

but anywho, keep in mind Garriott himself even didn't mind the secondary market taking effect. Yes some players hated it but all the traders, brokers ect doing it for a living helped boost the economy in the game at the time.

however, now we have too few of players, too few items in demand, and way too many scripters and sellers. The fine balance you need for it to be healthy was destroyed years ago.

when Lake Austin hit my girlfriend quit her job because we made more money per hour playing UO than her working. I personally never saw anything wrong with doing that because we didn't script nor exploit, we provided what people wanted into a healthy economy. Gold that brokers, house sellers, rares brokers ect ect sold was gold shifted through out the players, we didn't create any gold. Dupers ruined the economy almost overnight. Even if UO had many gold sinks the dupers did too much damage in that area.

funny part is, right now I'd be against UO selling those items, the market and economy and playerbase is just too messed up. Games like EVE have a secure set up for players to buy ISK in game. It works and it's great for the game... but again, their game has a strong economy.

Stratics Veteran

EVE also features battles where hundreds of billions of ISK can be destroyed. Imagine if larger Factions battles in UO were leading to hundreds of millions of player gold being wiped out every time.

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the idea of massive gold sinks have been around for a very very long time. I myself think we need some.

anyone remember many many years ago when Vampire of Baja suggested a traveling rares vendor? It would sell one of a kind items for rather large sums of gold. Once someone made a buy from it then it would vanish and spawn again somewhere in the world.

ideas like that gained a lot of support, but nothing of the kind has taken place.

I know this isn't really a gold sink tread but two things I think should happen for starters is

1. I know Pvpers need something for their time, instead of taking away the gold they get for killing someone (insurance) increase the insurance cost when killed by a player. A bit more gold leaves the game.

2. when you customize a house, don't give players refunds back. again, not a huge difference, but it's another start.

Stratics Veteran

If they sold gold a couple things would happen. HUGE inflation on everything and players who don't want to buy gold are going to really need a way to farm gold. So your expensive castles will become even more expensive, lol.

I mean, they'd go the same rate of speed as the others. It would only be a cosmetic change.

Plus deco items. People do love them.

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Well, yeah ... an unavailable through other means "item" for ingame gold
could be a "gold sink" ...
but not really ...
More of a "gold condensation"
convert that stack of bank checks "into" a single item ...
the "gold value" essentially remains in game.

It is the "flaw" in JJ's initial post
There are two "systems" at work, the internal game faucets/drains
The external "grey market" which is expressed/acted ingame.

JJ was trying and failing ingame to use ingame gold to get an ingame castle
there WAS "an available ingame item" (post #12)
she chose to "go external" and ask that EA provide an external route of completion(OP)

IF EA were to "interact" from the outside ($ for castle)
Ingame conditions worsen ... not only is the "state of gold" in game >the same<
there is an added "value" of ingame castle NOT produced from ingame sources/methods

Ingame faucets and drains are already known to be ... out of balance
Worsened by external grey market actions upon the ingame state.

More external actions >> will not "fix" the ingame state ...

and it is likely that the ingame faucets and drains >cannot be< fixed
due to the external manipulations OF/by the "grey market".

Math & economics? in the hall?

yeah no

Oh yeah ... btw ...the >established Grey Market IS LEGAL<
and very likely SMARTER and at least more quickly >adaptable< to market conditions than EA ever will be

Seriously. Instead of killing yourself to get gold just buy it legally from EA. Instead of killing yourself to get a billion gold or whatever for a castle just pay the UOGamecodes like $500 and volia!, you have your castle.

Stratics Veteran

Games like EVE have a secure set up for players to buy ISK in game. It works and it's great for the game... but again, their game has a strong economy.

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Hold on a second here, you can not buy Isk (gold) in EVE. You can purchase a game time card and trade that to another player for Isk. No Isk is ever created in the process.

1) Game developers get another subscription
2) One player trades the Isk to add time to their account
3) One player trades their own money to purchase Isk using a time card

It is a Win-Win-Win situation which has no conceivable negative effect on the game economy and actually helps it along by providing players a way to play their accounts for free. Many EVE players have up to a dozen accounts all paid through time cards.

The reason castles are so expensive is because of the limited amount of land where they can be placed and the out of control inflation because of all the gold in the game. You think it's bad now? If EA started selling gold the problem would instantly become 1,000 times worse. Instead of someone wanting 175mil for a castle, they'll want 175 billion.

I don't know what a solution to that problem is, but it's certainly not EA selling gold. If they started doing that gold would be completely worthless.

Stratics Veteran

If EA sold gold, they would basically be just printing money (Think U.S. Government, and more than likely China), and yes driving inflation through the roof.

The current system is merely passing checks on from one individual to another. Unless of course one spends the gold on NPC's or anything that will make the gold disappear through game mechanics (Item Insurance).

1) Game developers get another subscription
2) One player trades the Isk to add time to their account
3) One player trades their own money to purchase Isk using a time card

It is a Win-Win-Win situation which has no conceivable negative effect on the game economy and actually helps it along by providing players a way to play their accounts for free. Many EVE players have up to a dozen accounts all paid through time cards.

Click to expand...

And it deals with the "everything would be better if it was free to play" crowd. While it is cool to buy game-time within the game for ISK and it gives you an idea of what they view ISK's value at in a monetary sense, this would not work with UO, unfortunately. The scammers would get free accounts and it would encourage even more scamming.

I still like the thought of some way to have lots of gold destroyed in some form within UO through PvP. It's one of the things that makes EVE really unique when it comes to PvP and the EVE designers cited early UO as a major influence in their PvP decisions. I don't think many UO PvPers would be up for the risk of losing their best gear, potentially all of it. If they were, they'd all be on Siege or they'd just not insure their gear.

It really does make EVE pretty intense at times though. It also creates a lot of hatred among some of the players, a lot more hatred than you find in other MMOs, including UO. I don't know if you want that kind of intensity within UO.

Stratics Veteran

Hold on a second here, you can not buy Isk (gold) in EVE. You can purchase a game time card and trade that to another player for Isk. No Isk is ever created in the process.

1) Game developers get another subscription
2) One player trades the Isk to add time to their account
3) One player trades their own money to purchase Isk using a time card

It is a Win-Win-Win situation which has no conceivable negative effect on the game economy and actually helps it along by providing players a way to play their accounts for free. Many EVE players have up to a dozen accounts all paid through time cards.

Click to expand...

I should have elaborated better on that.

EVE does what I was talking about with brokers/ect. they shift ISK where the demand is, and it works well (it's backed by them as to prevent scamming, something EA could not do currently).

also, by EVE having such a strong economy you'll notice the going rate of ISK (amount you spend for a GTC compared of the amount of ISK you get for it) stays really strong as well.

Games like Second Life and Entropia directly control the price of their in game currency, so they have a steady hand on the pricing and rates, although they both take different measures.

Now take WoW, gold sinks? sure they have a few.But, they keep increasing the gold drops at a rate MUCH faster than the sinks. Even WoW players are starting to feel like they collect too much gold. I think they just raised the cap a character can have up to a million gold.

By looking at games with goldsinks, or companies that control the value of their gold you'll see more steady and solid markets.

Games like UO and WoW only get worse over time... a lot worse. difference is in WoW a noob can hit max level and farm their own gold in a short period of time to be ont he same 'level' as everyone else. Not so much in UO.

sorry to drag this on so long, my point is this

we need either:

1. Goldsinks in some form, be it a "clean up brit" sort of way where we are paying the game for items we want, thus removing the gold from the game for good.

2. a new form of currency, so the numbers get MUCH smaller. Allow people to always convert into the new currency at a brutal exchange rate. All monsters/BODS/whathaveyou drop the new currency AND add in goldsinks, just at a much smaller level.

3. not sure, but there must be something

4. Keep it all the same, and when we get this new surge of new players (doubtful) they will say: "look! updated awesome graphics, sooo much we can do in game, but I can't afford anything for 30 years... Guess I'll just go buy some from a website to catch up, or leave and play a different game".

Stratics VeteranAlumniStratics Legend

I still say if they sold random deco and changed it up every few months at a fair price it bring in some money. As we all know, even if UO got a boost of 50k extra just from a site store how much of it would really go back into UO. We know that answer. I still say limited time items in token form just for status use( costumes, special mounts with no abilities) would be the best. 30 day timer and if people want to spend their money on it go for it.

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